Sweetening the Deal - Part 2
#2 of Sweetening The Deal
**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I received a great deal of help with this story from the user AmagnificentMeerkat. He's a wonderful guy from England. I've truly enjoyed chatting with him. Thanks, man.
"When the Night Comes" is by Joe Cocker (1944-2014)**
By now, the rain had finally stopped pouring down outside. Karen looked over at the exhausted Arthur. The former virgin had managed to go four rounds with her over the course of two hours. It was the first time in ages that Karen had felt an orgasm during sex. Troy had become so self-centered and uncaring that he never concerned himself with her sexual desires in bed. Arthur was wild in the sack, but also incredibly sweet, thanking her repeatedly for what she had done for him. The vixen couldn't help but find that amusing.
"Oh," said the squirrel, getting out of bed. "I think I'll be going now. Thanks again for the bass and . . . the other stuff."
"Your welcome," she said, giving him a wink. "Thanks for the extra money."
He leaned down, picking up his clothes, suddenly a frown appeared on his face. "I . . . I hope I'm not being a home wrecker by what I did."
"Honey," said Karen, getting up and putting her clothes back on. "You can't wreck what was already destroyed a long time ago. Trust me, it's okay. I really enjoyed myself."
He managed a weak smile as they headed out to the living room. Picking up the the bass guitar case, he giggled as she kissed him on the cheek.
"You take care, okay?" said the vixen. "Maybe we could do this again?"
"I'd like that," he said, opening up the door. "I'll be sure to bring more cash next time."
"Very good," she said, seeing him walk out the door and down the hall. She locked up the apartment, feeling the twenty one hundred dollars in her paws. She remembered what Troy had said about making sure she got at least a grand out of the deal. She grinned, thinking about the extra thousand she had received from the deal. She put half of it in her pocket, but left the remaining thousand out on the kitchen table for him to see.
"I'll be damned if you see the other part of this, you slimey sack of crap," she growled to herself. Just the thought about the fifty grand she'd let that wolf piss away on his band over the years ate at her. This extra thousand was going to be her ticket to a new life; her chance to get away from a guy she'd not only grown apart from, but now actively despised. Thinking about that wolf at the bar, getting wasted, pissing away her inheritance on foolish bets, it made her blood boil. She had to find a place to hide that thousand bucks from him, as he would surely lose that in no time at all.
She went into their bedroom and found her jewelry box. Once it had been filled with rings, necklaces and other items, but Troy in his greed had cleaned it out; no doubt pawning it off for beer and betting. With nothing left to rob her of, she thought it a suitable place to hide the cash in. Yawning, tired, she placed it back on the dresser and changed into some night apparel. It was getting late, and she needed her sleep after such a wild romp with Arthur. Lying down in bed, she turned off the lamp and was quickly overtaken by sleep.
In the morning, she woke up to see Troy was out in the kitchen. She still didn't let on that she knew about his going off to the bar instead of work, and she had no intention of telling him she knew the truth. She gave him a smle as she opened the refrigerator, trying to find something to eat.
"Morning," she said.
"Morning," he grumbled. Just the tone in his voice was all the evidence Karen needed to realize that he probably lost a huge sum last night. She could feel her temperature rising, but played it cool.
"How was work?" she asked, taking out a carton of milk and pouring a glass for herself.
"Fine," he said. He lifted up the ten one hundred dollar bills. "I see you got rid of the bass."
"I did," she answered, sitting down next to him at the table. "Did I do alright?"
"I guess," he said, shrugging. Once she'd gotten close enough to him, she realized that he was reeked of alcohol; not just beer, but hard liquor. She tried not to flare her nostrils at the smell--nauseating to her at such an early hour of the day.
"I'm going to go out and do some grocery shopping today," she said. "You need anything special?"
"More money would be nice," he snarled, his eyes narrowed into angry slits.
Oh, you rotten pile of shit, she thought to herself. The nerve of this guy was truly amazing.
"Sorry," she said, trying not to act offended at his rude remark. "I have just enough to get us food for the rest of the week."
"Fine," he said, walking out of the kitchen. "I'm going to bed."
She sighed, walking out of the apartment. She couldn't wait to get away from him.
Being a Saturday, all the town's stores were super busy. Karen had picked up food for her and Troy for the next week, leaving her only five dollars aside from the money she had stashed away. Driving Troy's old beat-up truck, she pulled into the apartment's parking lot. She remembered how many times he didn't even bother to help her bring the groceries in, and she added that to her growing list of reasons to be done with him. Hopefully he had passed out from all the drinking so she wouldn't have to deal with him when she walked inside.
Her arms were completely loaded down with groceries as she walked inside the building. It was all she could do to grab the apartment keys she had put in her mouth and unlock the door. The plastic bags rustled against one another as she entered the apartment. Her arms were about ready to give out from all the weight of the groceries as she stumbled into the kitchen to put them away, but there was something she wasn't expecting.
"Hey," said Troy, sitting on a chair around the kitchen table. "How was your day?"
"Fine," she said, practically dropping the groceries on the table. She looked over at him, he had a beer bottle in his paws. What a prick. He'd passed out, only to get up and start drinking again. She turned her back to him as she started putting the various grocery items in their proper place.
"You get everything we needed?" he asked, taking a long gulp of beer.
"Think so," she said, putting the paper towels in the cupboard above the frig.
"Hope so, since we don't have any extra money, according to you," he snarled. Karen could feel her blood go cold at the tone of his voice.
"Something wrong?" she asked, innocently.
"Oh, nothing," he said sarcastically. He got up and got right behind the vixen. Karen turned around to see a wrathful expression on his face. "I accidentally knocked your jewelry box off the dresser and found this."
Karen watched as he pulled the extra thousand bucks out of his pocket. It was her worst nightmare come true. Why hadn't she just kept the money with her? She tried to explain her way out of it.
"I've . . . I've been saving that for something special," she said, trying to smile.
"Something special, huh?" he said, glaring at her. "How'd you get this anyway?"
"Just putting a few dollars away here and there. That's all."
Her looked her over, seeing the nervousness in her voice and body movements. "You must think I'm stupid, don't you?"
She reached out, putting an affectionate paw on his shoulder, but he simply slapped it away. "Ouch," she said, rubbing the injured paw. "Troy, that hurt."
"Does it?" he said, grabbing hold of her arm tightly. She struggled to break free, but he was far too strong for her. "You wanna know what hurts?" She watched, terrified as he moved his right paw back, slapping her hard across the face, causing her to fall on the kitchen floor. "That's what hurts!"
Already she could taste blood in her mouth from being struck so violently. She stumbled around, trying to get up, but the wolf pinned her to the floor. "Where did you get that money? You better not lie to me, you stupid little cunt."
"I saved it," she said, crying.
"Bullshit," he said, giving her another slap to the face. "I guess you must want an ass kicking, don't you?"
"Troy, stop it!" she screamed.
"I'll stop once you tell me the truth, bitch," he said, brutally twisting her arm. "Now, you gonna keep lying, or are you gonna be honest?"
The pain was terrible, but she was tired of holding back. Her hatred for the wolf reached a new level as she spat out the truth. "I got ti fucking another guy!"
"What?" he said, completely shocked by her revelation.
"That's, right," she said, angrily. "I fucked another guy and he gave me money. So what? You've robbed me blind for the past three years, I deserved that money, you son of a whore!"
Troy grabbed her, picked her up and threw her hard into the frig. She fell back down, wailing in pain. "You dirty, fucking slut. I can't believe you." He got down on the ground, giving her a hard right to the jaw. "I should kill you for that."
"Fuck you!" she screamed, receiving another punch from him. "I'd rather be dead than be with you. I hate you! I hate you!"
"Feelings mutual," he said, picking her up, he grabbed her by the neck, choking her. His eyes were ablaze with hatred. "You deserve this, you filthy cunt." Somehow, she managed to find enough strength to knee him in the groin. He released his choke hold on her as he fell down from the injury. She ran into the living room, grabbing her laptop and cell phone. She had only seconds to run into the bathroom, locking it before he got up and ran after her. Pounding on the door, he screamed at her.
"Get out of there, you bitch,"
"Go to hell," she said, trying to think of what to do. She wanted to call the police, but that would do her no good. Troy's uncle was the sheriff in their county and he would probably order his deputies to let Troy go. He'd gotten away with driving drunk before, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities.
"You gotta come out of there sometime," he yelled, still pounding on the door.
She didn't answer. She wanted to jump out the window, but their apartment was on the third floor. Such a leap would certainly result in serious injury, possibly even death from that height. She had nowhere to go.
Hours went by and Karen was still trapped in the bathroom. She thought about what she could do. Finally, she opened the door, seeing that Troy was no longer there. Still on guard, she crept around the apartment. He was nowhere to be seen. Her heart pounded as she went outside and saw that his truck was gone. She surmised that he probably went back to the bar to get drunk, or maybe he went to go get a gun to kill her. Several beasts looked at her, seeing the bruises and cuts on her face as she went back into the apartment. Throwing herself on the bed, she screamed into the pillow, wondering how she could get away from him now. Slowly, she began to resign herself to her fate of either another beating or even death at the paws of her abusive boyfriend. Sighing, she took hold of her phone and put her earbuds in. Opening up the phone, she went to her music and pushed "shuffle" and heard the random song playing.
Hold on I'll be back for you It won't be long But for now there's something else that's calling me So take me down a lonesome road Point me east and let me go That suitcase weighs me down with memories
I just want to be the one you run to I just want to be the one you come to I just want to be there for someone When the night comes Let's put all our cares behind us And go where they'll never find us I just want to be there beside you When the night comes When the night comes
Two spirits in the night That can leave before the morning light When there's nothing left to lose And nothing left to fear So meet me on the edge of town Won't keep you waiting I'll be 'round Then you and I We'll just roll right out of town
She put her head up, thinking about what she could do now as she heard the song lyrics. Going to her laptop, she looked at the emails that Arthur had sent her last night. Luckily, she had not deleted them. She didn't have his number, but she kept sending him messages, telling him that she needed his help. She waited and waited . . .
"Please," she said, crying. "Please message me back, Arthur!"